The present invention relates to a plant harvesting machine and, more particularly, to a plant harvesting machine designed to harvest tobacco plants.
Tobacco plants are typically grown in parallel rows and, at the time of harvesting, have a relatively thick, woody stem. When harvested by hand, the stem is severed adjacent the ground surface by the field worker. A `stick` (typically wood) is forced through the stems of several of the harvested plants so that several plants then can be conveniently transported to and stored in a curing barn.
Since manual harvesting is a labor-intensive and relatively inefficient method of processing tobacco plants, various machine systems have been developed for the machine harvesting of the plants. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,216 to Day et al. discloses a tobacco harvester having a saw blade that severs the plant adjacent the ground surface and a conveyor-type elevator which then elevates the severed plant. An opposed pair of inversion disks grip and invert the severed plant. The stem of the inverted plant is then notched to facilitate placement of the notched stem in a holding bar.